Whacking ‘da media’ media is a simple formula

Following the upset win in South Carolina, TIME magazine on Newt Gingrinch’s strategy:

For Gingrich, this was not just a victory but also a validation. When his staff ditched him last summer amid an imbroglio over the campaign’s direction, Gingrich committed to running a lean, nimble operation that relied heavily on free media (he had little money and scant institutional support to raise it), his ability to capitalize on the glut of debates and bring crowds to their feet by filleting the media. On the trail, Gingrich likes to say that the staff exodus in June freed him to run the campaign he always wanted, wherein he exercised near-total control of strategy and messaging.

Indeed, but like a certain ‘spontaneous’ prime ministerial media conference walkout over inconvenient questions [about teapot tapes], these attacks are sometimes dressed up as ‘issues that matter’.

“I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run of for public office and I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that,” Gingrich said.

After Newt Gingrich was declared the winner of the South Carolina primary Saturday night, Karl Rove suggested that the candidate has CNN’s John King to thank for his victory in the Palmetto State.
“Taking on the media is always good in a Republican primary,” Rove said on Fox News. “John King couldn’t have set up the question in a more positive way for Gingrich to just nail it and haul it right out of the park.”